Pink Floyd Says U2 'Devaluing' Music by Giving Away 'Songs of Innocence'

Rest assured, Pink Floyd will not be giving away their new album, The Endless River, for free.

Drummer Nick Mason made that clear when criticizing U2's marketing scheme for Songs of Innocence, which included a free copy in hundreds of millions of Apple users's computers. He said it is "devaluing" music.

"It was so unexpected, I thought, and interesting that people took such umbrage at being given something," Mason told Rolling Stone. "That does devalue things. Music has been horribly devalued by being given away. It's funny they didn't sense some of that. It's been the big story of the 21st century, music being de-valued."

As previously reported, Mason had many interesting things to say in the same interview, including the claim that he will never proclaim Pink Floyd dead.

"I think I'll let David [Gilmour] do the, 'This is the last, this is the end,'" he said. "I now believe when I'm dead and buried my tombstone will read, "I'm not entirely sure the band's over.'"

PF only features Gilmour and Mason, so if the former ever splits, it leaves the latter in complete control.

"It did cross my mind that if David announces this is really the end of it, if he resigns from Pink Floyd, that leaves me in total control," Mason said. "God knows I'll be out on the road playing the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon, just the drum parts. It'll be quite dull ... I can see the headline now: 'Nick Mason to Tour.'"

The Endless River will be out Nov. 10.

"Essentially, when we recorded The Division Bell 20 years ago, the idea was to make a double album," Mason said. "We thought we might do one disc of songs and one disc of ambient music, a throwback to jamming. As so often happens, we ran out of time."

"There was a tour coming up and we'd got the songs finished," he added. "We'd probably also run out of steam. It seemed like too much of a mountain, that second element of it. It just got shelved. It stayed shelved for a very long time."

As our own Shawn Christ pointed out, the band has been sharing previews of the album recently, and it is currently on track to become the most preordered album in history.

Tags

Pink Floyd, U2, Songs of innocence